Rudd urges NATO allies to send more troops to Afghanistan

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has used his first day in Europe to urge an increase in troops in Afghanistan.

Transcript

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TONY JONES: After moving his touring party to Europe, the Prime Minister has used his first day on the continent to call for an increase in troops in Afghanistan.

Yesterday Kevin Rudd was in brussels for meetings with the European Commission. Now he's taken his message on Afghanistan to Romania, where he'll become the first Australian Prime Minister to address a NATO summit.

And there's fresh evidence his call for a troop surge is justified. The Taliban has released a DVD of a suicide bombing in Southern Afghanistan. The ABC's chief political correspondent, Chris Uhlmann, filed this report from Bucharest.

CHRIS UHLMANN: A gesture of Taliban defiance against NATO. As a suicide bomber targets a US Army base in South Eastern Afghanistan. The bombing techniques are as sophisticated as the propaganda. This DVD is timed to coincide with a NATO summit, considering whether to put more troops on the ground.

GENERAL DAN MCNEILL, NATO COMMANDER: I hope that the politicians and those who meet in Bucharest, those who make those decisions will be generous and some more will come this way.

CHRIS UHLMANN: That pleas already being heard. France will send a battalion of troops to Eastern Afghanistan, freeing up the US to support Canadian forces in the South.

GEORGE W. BUSH, US PRESIDENT: The United States is deploying an additional 3 500 marines. Romania's adding forces, as are several other allies. We ask other NATO nations to step forward with additional forces as well. If we cannot defeat the terrorists in Afghanistan, we will face them on our own soil.

CHRIS UHLMANN: In Brussels for a meeting with the President of the European Commission, Kevin Rudd adds his voice.

KEVIN RUDD, PRIME MINISTER: We have our troops who are in harms way and we owe them everything in our upcoming meetings in Bucharest and all those other troops on the ground in Afghanistan to ensure they have an effective strategy most military and civilian to ensure that we can prevail and assist the Government in Kabul to establish proper control over the country.

CHRIS UHLMANN: But his host is offering nothing.

JOSE-MANUEL BARROSO, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT: Tomorrow, both of us will be discussing this issue in Bucharest in the context of the NATO summit.

CHRIS UHLMANN: The United States has long complained that some European NATO members are keeping their troops away from the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan. On this, Kevin Rudd is in lock step with George W. Bush.

KEVIN RUDD: These are the terrorists that planned and executed attacks on the United States on 11 September, 2001, which was in every respect an attack on the collective civilisation of the West. Australia is an ally of the United States, Australia is a proud ally of the United States, much of Europe is an ally of the United States. Those attacks were the cold blooded murder of over 3000 people from all over the world. We have to makes sure we prevent the threat of similar attacks in the future.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Many of the roads around the Romanian capital have been locked down for the NATO summit and the Australian Prime Minister will speak to this forum for the first time. Speaking on behalf of the United States and many here might wonder how this new Government is different from the old. Chris Uhlmann. Lateline.